Children in the Concentration Camps and in the Holocaust
Children behind the barbed wire fences at a concentration camp.
Children were very vulnerable during the Holocaust and were one of the main targets. Jewish children suffered and were restricted as soon as the Nazis came to power. It became a very hostile atmosphere. Friends and the rest of the community would turn against any Jews. On April 25, 1933 there was a law made called "Law against Overcrowding in German Schools and Universities." This meant that only Jewish children with war veterans parents and non-Jewish kids could go to school. On November 15, 1938 Jewish and Gypsies people were not allowed to go to school. German parents didn't want their children to be with the Jewish or Gypsy. Also the Nazis didn't think it important for them to get an education and did not think they were smart enough.
Soon after every Jew and Gypsy was sent to ghettos and to transit camps. At these places many died from diseases, exposure, starvation, lack of clothing and shelter, and overcrowding. During 1938 through 1940, Kindertransport brought children without parents to Great Britain to hide them from the Nazis and German land. In the ghettos, the Nazis would call everyone out of the small homes to a "meeting" and if you didn't come and someone found out, you were shot and killed. Some of the children were able to hide in small spaces in the homes to escape the Nazis. Some children escaped because Catholic priests, nuns and other Catholics hid Jewish children in the town and church. They moved everyone to concentration camps except the children born in the ghettos. The Nazis thought they were useless and unproductive so all of them were murdered or were left in the ghettos to die. The children and family walked or took a train. On top of the train there were Nazis so if anyone tried to jump off, the Nazis would shoot them.
When the children got to the camps, the older you were, the better chance of survival. All the children were split into three groups based on their age and physical appearance: The first group was infants and toddlers to age six, the second group was ages seven to twelve and the third group was teenagers ages thirteen through eighteen. Kids ages thirteen to eighteen had the best chance out of everyone because they were usually strong enough and educated enough to be laborers. Kids in the second group were less likely to survive because they were either sent to work as labors, were sent to gas chambers, or were sent to mass graves. Usually the children in this group weren't sent to be laborers but if they were, most of them would die because they couldn't handle the harsh working conditions. Most of them were sent to gas chambers and mass graves. Mass graves are where people would stand at the edge of a dug up grave, would be shot by Nazis and fall into the graves. They did this because then they didn't have to transfer all the dead bodies to the area. Infants, toddlers and young children to the age of six were sent to gas chambers immediately upon arrival at the camps or were sent with the elders to the "euthanasia program." The Nazis didn't think that the young children had any use, didn't have any ability to work and did not have room or a purpose to keep them. Over 870 infants born in the Ravensbruck camp were aborted, beaten and killed between 1943 and 1945. Some died by being used as tests for medical experiments and most of these experiments ended in the death of the children. Also 7,000 non-Jewish children were killed at Auschwitz for being disabled and as part of the euthanasia program.
Leo Schneiderman had to live through one of the worst concentration camps. He was taken with his family to Auschwitz concentration camp when he was a child.
"....When we came in, the minute the gates opened up, we heard screams, barking of dogs, blows from...from those Kapos, those officials working for them, over the head. And then we got out of the train. And everything went so fast: left, right, right, left. Men separated from women. Children torn from the arms of mothers. The elderly chased like cattle. The sick, the disabled were handled like packs of garbage......," said Schneiderman when describing his arrival at Auschwitz. Schneiderman was one of the luckiest children and was liberated from Auschwitz after the terrible stay at the camp.
Thousands of children were killed by the concentration camps because of their appearance, age, size, religion and many other reasons. Germans killed 1.5 million children. 1 million of them Jewish, thousands of them Gypsy, German children with disabilities, and Polish and Soviet Union children
Soon after every Jew and Gypsy was sent to ghettos and to transit camps. At these places many died from diseases, exposure, starvation, lack of clothing and shelter, and overcrowding. During 1938 through 1940, Kindertransport brought children without parents to Great Britain to hide them from the Nazis and German land. In the ghettos, the Nazis would call everyone out of the small homes to a "meeting" and if you didn't come and someone found out, you were shot and killed. Some of the children were able to hide in small spaces in the homes to escape the Nazis. Some children escaped because Catholic priests, nuns and other Catholics hid Jewish children in the town and church. They moved everyone to concentration camps except the children born in the ghettos. The Nazis thought they were useless and unproductive so all of them were murdered or were left in the ghettos to die. The children and family walked or took a train. On top of the train there were Nazis so if anyone tried to jump off, the Nazis would shoot them.
When the children got to the camps, the older you were, the better chance of survival. All the children were split into three groups based on their age and physical appearance: The first group was infants and toddlers to age six, the second group was ages seven to twelve and the third group was teenagers ages thirteen through eighteen. Kids ages thirteen to eighteen had the best chance out of everyone because they were usually strong enough and educated enough to be laborers. Kids in the second group were less likely to survive because they were either sent to work as labors, were sent to gas chambers, or were sent to mass graves. Usually the children in this group weren't sent to be laborers but if they were, most of them would die because they couldn't handle the harsh working conditions. Most of them were sent to gas chambers and mass graves. Mass graves are where people would stand at the edge of a dug up grave, would be shot by Nazis and fall into the graves. They did this because then they didn't have to transfer all the dead bodies to the area. Infants, toddlers and young children to the age of six were sent to gas chambers immediately upon arrival at the camps or were sent with the elders to the "euthanasia program." The Nazis didn't think that the young children had any use, didn't have any ability to work and did not have room or a purpose to keep them. Over 870 infants born in the Ravensbruck camp were aborted, beaten and killed between 1943 and 1945. Some died by being used as tests for medical experiments and most of these experiments ended in the death of the children. Also 7,000 non-Jewish children were killed at Auschwitz for being disabled and as part of the euthanasia program.
Leo Schneiderman had to live through one of the worst concentration camps. He was taken with his family to Auschwitz concentration camp when he was a child.
"....When we came in, the minute the gates opened up, we heard screams, barking of dogs, blows from...from those Kapos, those officials working for them, over the head. And then we got out of the train. And everything went so fast: left, right, right, left. Men separated from women. Children torn from the arms of mothers. The elderly chased like cattle. The sick, the disabled were handled like packs of garbage......," said Schneiderman when describing his arrival at Auschwitz. Schneiderman was one of the luckiest children and was liberated from Auschwitz after the terrible stay at the camp.
Thousands of children were killed by the concentration camps because of their appearance, age, size, religion and many other reasons. Germans killed 1.5 million children. 1 million of them Jewish, thousands of them Gypsy, German children with disabilities, and Polish and Soviet Union children
Euthanasia
The act of putting to death painlessly or allowing to die, as by withholding extreme medical measures, a person or animal suffering from an incurable, especially a painful,disease or condition.
The act of putting to death painlessly or allowing to die, as by withholding extreme medical measures, a person or animal suffering from an incurable, especially a painful,disease or condition.